Top 10 books of 2012

Updated 4:17 pm, Friday, December 21, 2012

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, by Katherine Boo

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, by Katherine Boo

Photo: Random House

Image 3 of 12

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, by Ben Fountain

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, by Ben Fountain

Photo: Thorne Anderson

Image 4 of 12

Dear Life, by Alice Munro

Dear Life, by Alice Munro

Photo: Knopf

Image 5 of 12

This book cover image released by Scribner shows "Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity," by Andrew Solomon. (AP Photo/Scribner)

This book cover image released by Scribner shows "Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity," by Andrew Solomon. (AP Photo/Scribner)

Photo: Associated Press

Image 6 of 12

"A Hologram for the King," by Dave Eggers

"A Hologram for the King," by Dave Eggers

Image 7 of 12

This undated publicity photo provided by Nan A. Taleese/Doubleday shows the cover of the book, "Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1945-1956," by Anne Applebaum. (AP Photo/Doubleday, James Kegley)

This undated publicity photo provided by Nan A. Taleese/Doubleday shows the cover of the book, "Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1945-1956," by Anne Applebaum. (AP Photo/Doubleday, James Kegley)

Photo: James Kegley, Associated Press

Image 8 of 12

The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin, by Masha Gessen

The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin, by Masha Gessen

Photo: Riverhead Books

Image 9 of 12

The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, by Robert A. Caro

The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, by Robert A. Caro

Image 10 of 12

The Round House, by Louise Erdrich

The Round House, by Louise Erdrich

Photo: HarperCollins

Image 11 of 12

"Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?" by Jeanette Winterson

"Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?" by Jeanette Winterson

Image 12 of 12

Top 10 books of 2012

1 / 12

Back to Gallery

The big news in publishing these days may be all about mergers, but that hasn't diminished the many excellent books that came out this year. Among the standouts are two firsts: a debut novel by Ben Fountain ("Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk") and a nonfiction work by New Yorker writer Katherine Boo ("Behind the Beautiful Forevers"). The themes in our top 10 list are far from cheery, ranging from poverty and war to oppression, yet even in these darkest accounts, perseverance and resilience prevail - whether it's in a Mumbai slum or in nations - and households - run by tyrants. As Elie Wiesel writes, movingly, in his new memoir, "Open Heart," "Such is the miracle: A tale about despair becomes a tale against despair."

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, by Katherine Boo (Random House; 256 pages; $27). Deeply reported and written with understated grace, Boo's magnificent, often heartbreaking account brings forth the humanity of the ever-resourceful residents of a slum near Mumbai's airport.

Dear Life: Stories, by Alice Munro (Knopf; 319 pages; $26.95). Munro's unsentimental, unvarnished stories of small-town life in her native Ontario are exemplars of the form - and welcome antidotes to gauzy, Norman Rockwell-like visions of the past.

Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity, by Andrew Solomon (Scribner; 962 pages; $37.50). In his tremendous, eye-opening study, Solomon convincingly and compassionately argues that commonalities exist among those with "horizontal" traits, such as deafness, dwarfism, autism and transgenderism.

A Hologram for the King, by Dave Eggers (McSweeney's; 312 pages; $25). Eggers' latest novel - about a struggling sales executive who has a shot at a life-changing work contract in Saudi Arabia - is a dry-eyed elegy written in spellbinding prose.

Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1945-1956, by Anne Applebaum (Doubleday; 566 pages; $35). Applebaum's engrossing and finely researched history tells of how liberation from the Nazis, for millions, led to subjugation by another tyrannical force.

The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin, by Masha Gessen (Riverhead; 314 pages; $27.95). Gessen's brave, impassioned and darkly comic biography is a damning portrait of the Russian leader.

The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, by Robert A. Caro (Knopf; 712 pages; $35). With a novelist's flair, Caro continues, in this fourth of five volumes, his monumental biography of one of America's most complex and conflicted politicians.

The Round House, by Louise Erdrich (Harper; 321 pages; $27.99). Set on an Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota, Erdrich's suspenseful novel is narrated by a 13-year-old boy whose mother has been brutally attacked.

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson (Grove; 230 pages; $25). Mercifully free of rancor - and any gooey sense of redemption - Winterson's hard-nosed, bitterly funny memoir examines a childhood with a malicious adoptive mother who could have been created by Dickens.

Latest from the SFGATE homepage:

Click below for the top news from around the Bay Area and beyond. Sign up for our newsletters to be the first to learn about breaking news and more. Go to 'Sign In' and 'Manage Profile' at the top of the page.